The end of the third Era as seen by unheroic eyes
by ascoreandseven
Summary: Not all stories have to be heroic. Sometimes, fate makes mistakes and the wrong person is thrust into the wrong story.
1. Act 1: Prelude

This is a writing exercise, to see what I can do with words and to test the effectiveness of my imagination. The story came about from two years of playing Oblivion with a lot of strange mods added on to augment the game's features and since I was able to form a story out of those two years' worth of gameplay, it suffices to say that the mods did their job. Nonetheless, this is a disclaimer and as such exempts me from being obliged to cater to anyone's expectations. If you read this, you understand and accept that the effort put into the writing and composing of this story will not guarantee a quality tale.

ACT I: PRELUDE

Luxurious. That was how she would have described her cell if she were ever asked. It was a small room, 10 steps across and 14 steps in length. Her feet were small so perhaps the actual measure was smaller but that was of no consequence- she had plenty of space in the room. On a bright day, she could even sit and bask in the sunlight that came from a window four heads above her. Food was delivered to her on time, her chamber pot was emptied every day. Her clothes had no holes besides the ones it was supposed to have.

Before she was confined to these walls, she slept under hedges if she was fortunate, her clothes had more holes than cloth, and she could perhaps hope to eat once or twice a week. That was a lifetime ago and she no longer remembered how she had lived long enough to be imprisoned, nor why she was in prison. When she first arrived, she had been sick because the dry bread they served was too rich for her stomach to digest, the clothes too heavy on her bony body and the closed room from where she could not see the stars terrified her. However, over time she had become adjusted to the food and clothing, and had forgotten what the stars looked like. Her stomach was no longer empty and that was enough. She adjusted herself in the dark corner of the room as the first rays of the morning sun shone into the room. Another morning had come.

She stood up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, paced about the length of her room until her body had warmed. When she was first brought to the cell, there was another prisoner in it. An old Bosmer that was too sprightly for his age. Every morning the elf would wake up with the sun, pace around the room briskly and then proceed to exercise until he worked up a sweat and smelled. Over time, she began to join him in his morning practice. The guards laughed at the Wood Elf and the Breton that were jumping around in that small prison cell in the beginning but when they showed no signs of stopping, they got bored and left the two to their own devices. So it was that the unlikely pair of criminal scum who were incarcerated for reasons unknown to each other and themselves spent their days in each other's company. Until the time came for the Bosmer to leave.

"Aha! You cannibal, today you lose your head!" Valen Dreth screamed from the cell across the hall. He was a 'regular' in the Imperial Prison, it seemed, and had seen many a prisoner make that walk. She had not understood what was happening until the Bosmer looked at her and smiled. "Don't stop your morning routine," he said as they closed the gate, "You will need strength in your legs to walk until the end without disgracing your forebears." Her legs gave way under her and she never saw the old Bosmer ever again. She could hear Dreth's taunts from across the hall today too. It was something she had not heard since that day and that was how she knew.

Today was her turn to make the walk.


	2. Act II: The day of my execution

Act II: The day of my execution

Dreth jeered and howled all morning. That is, until he realized that no guards were coming to take me away and finally went to sleep. I didn't care, I sat in my usual corner and with nothing left to do, dozed off. I dreamed strange dreams, of skipping and running with Valen Dreth and the prison warden. The prison walls were bread and so was the warden's armour. He left crumbs with each jump until he was left in his smallclothes and there were breadcrumbs all over the floor.

I woke up when I realized that I was laughing in my sleep. The cell was dim and there was a cold dinner on the floor. I had slept far longer than I had intended. Not that I had intended to wake at a specific hour. As it so happened, I was in a prison cell and my only upcoming engagement was with the headsman. The laughter died on my lips at that thought but it did nothing to quench my hunger. I had slept before eating lunch and my stomach demanded appeasement. Picking up the hard bread from the floor, I moved to the table in the corner. As I slowly made my way through my food, a familiar jeering voice came from outside.

"Even death does nothing to cull your appetite, I see."

Dreth was standing at his cell's door, his arms dangling out and his head resting between the bars. It looked uncomfortable but the Dark Elf was a strange one. I figured he was used to such antics. "I am not dead yet, as you can see." I replied as I chewed.

"Perhaps tomorrow then," said Dreth, the leering smile still on his face, "or maybe the day after, or the day after that, or maybe tonight!" He was laughing now. I wondered what had happened to the creature to make him so vile. "Or maybe they've forgotten about you," he continued, "Imperials, Bretons, Nords, you're all the same. Humans just don't care about another of their own kind enough to kill them on time."

"What do you want, Dreth?" I asked, waking up to my cell's door with my bread in hand. I sat down in front of the grill and crossed my legs, and continued my dinner. Dreth was still leering, "Why don't you come over to my cell, little whore?" he sneered, "Since these are your last days, I will make it a little more comfortable for you. What do you say, hmm?"

I threw what remained of my loaf of bread to him across the hall. "Maybe you're going senile, old creature?" I sneered right back, "Here, I'll let you have this piece of bread. Maybe they'll come for you tomorrow and let me go instead." I laughed in his face and went back to my corner. I could hear Dreth still cursing from his cell, but I could also hear him munching on something. He really must have been just hungry.

As I lay on my bed, the light in the prison grew darker and darker until there was precious little to be called 'light'. The cell nearly pitch black now, in fact the entire passageway was darker than it usually was. Even when darkness fell outside, the passageways were usually well lit and the Dunmer would often complain that he couldn't sleep because of the was strange and somehow ominous. There was a faint light coming from the window so high up on the wall that barely let me make out the furniture in my cell. The guards had never once been late in all the time that I had spent in the prison and supper usually came before it went dark outside. We, or at least I, got two meals a day and guards would regularly patrol the passageway so if I needed water, I could simply ask and they'd refill my pitcher. It was truly odd that I had not seen a single guard since I woke up and I must have spent at least an hour or two talking to Dreth. I was turning in my straw bed, wondering what was going on when I heard voices. I sat up and tried to listen to the words but the speech was muffled.

Dreth called out from his cell again, "Haha! Did you hear that? The guards are here for you! It's time for you to die little wretch, and you will die knowing that you lost your only chance at knowing a man. Die you wretch, die!"

I ignored him and went up to the cell door to try and catch some part of the conversation, but it seemed that I didn't have to try so hard. The voices got louder and louder and a torchlight shone in the passageway. There was a woman's voice, which was strange because there were no women guards in the prison. I also heard a more gruff voice belonging to a man and another man's more aged voice. Finally, they came close enough that I could make out what they were saying.

The man with the aged voice was saying, "My sons, they're dead aren't they?"

"We don't know that, sire", came the woman's voice. "The messenger only said that they were attacked!"

"No, they're dead. I know it." The old man said in resignation. The footsteps were approaching towards our side of the passage. My mind was reeling, the woman said 'sire' and there was only one person that anybody would address as 'sire' in all of Tamriel. It was the emperor and he was here in the prison! Did they think that either Dreth or I had any part in the attack they were talking about? I had thought myself ready for death but as I felt it approaching, strength left my body and I sank to the floor in fear.

"My job right now is to get you to safety, and that's wha-" the woman stopped right in front of my cell's door. She seemed to have been caught off-guard by my presence. She glared at me sternly, her eyes glinting from behind her helm. She turned to the prison warden who had been following them silently, "What's this prisoner doing here? This cell was supposed to be off-limits!" she fumed. The warden shriveled in fear. It seemed that I was being held in a cell that should have been unoccupied. "U-usual mix up w-with the watch. I.." he stammered but the woman did not seem to be in any mood to listen. "Never mind," she snapped, "get that gate opened immediately! Stand back wretch, I won't hesitate to cut you down if you get in our way!"

My mind was racing, unlike my body which had failed me. "Forgive me, old Bosmer. It seems that I have disgraced my forebears." I thought to myself. From what I could piece together, the Emperor and his heirs were in danger and that was why nobody came to get me today morning and from what I had heard the Emperor say, his sons were already dead. How many sons did he have? Who could be attacking the Emperor in order for guards to ignore their duties and an execution? Even more importantly, why was the Emperor coming to my prison cell if he was being attacked?

My thoughts were broken by the gruff man's voice, "You there, prisoner! Didn't you hear us? Go over to the wall and stay there if you know what's good for you." Fear moved my body and I scurried over to my corner on all fours. Everything was eerily quiet but for the sound of armoured boots across the cell's floor. "Good, stay put and you won't get hurt." He said, turning to me as the woman marched in front of a man in a robe as dark as the night. I thought it was kind of silly for him to wear such a rich robe if he was trying to escape from pursuit but high society was strange and someone like me would never understand the way they lived.

The woman was fiddling with the chains that hung near an alcove in my cell, "We're not out of this yet. Baurus, watch the door." She barked out commands as she kept pulling and twirling the chains. The Emperor looked at me strangely, "You there girl, come here." He called out. I looked at the man called Baurus who told me to stay put, and he nodded. I took that as permission to approach and stepped towards the Emperor. The old man was quick for his age. His hand shot out of his robe with no warning and grabbed my face by the chin. "You.. Your face is not familiar to me, it is not the one I expected to see." He sighed, "Divines bless me, perhaps this is not the day I die." I pulled back as soon as he let go of my face. His grip was strong and my jaw hurt. This was the Emperor of Tamriel. He wasn't just some old man. Even I had heard of the Septim rulers, those with the Dragon's blood in them and strange powers that were given to them by the Nine but I didn't expect one of them to grab my face like that.

The woman fiddling with the chains seemed to have succeeded and the stones in the wall of the alcove fell away, revealing a passage beyond. "This way, sire." She ushered the Emeperor inside. I stood rooted in place, dumbfounded. If the Bosmer knew of this way out, he never said anything to me. Even if I had known, would I have escaped? Inside the prison, I had food, shelter and- I paused. I was supposed to be executed on this day. What more did I have left in this prison? Why would I stay inside these walls a moment longer? I could leave. There was no way the fallen bricks would simply reassemble themselves and there were no guards to hold me here either. I could even walk out the front door, I imagined.

The soldier called Baurus turned towards me before following the Emperor, "Looks like it's your lucky day, prisoner. Just make sure not to get in our way." I could hardly believe it. I really was free to go. The Emperor of Tamriel himself was here and I was being let go. My knees trembled but, step by step, I followed the Emperor's party towards my freedom.

In that moment, my past didn't matter. It didn't matter that I had been in prison. I had no trade of my own, but I was free and I was alive. As I walked out of that cell, I was determined to survive. I could join one of the temples and find work. Perhaps the Temple of Dibella would take me. The others were a bit too stuck up but Dibella's priestesses were renowned for providing- services other than those in the chapel and that was something any woman could do. I was even prepared to beg if I had to.

I was going to live!


	3. Act III: Escape

Act III: Escape

I was tired. Tired from running, tired from screaming, tired from crying and tired of holding up a door that was being relentlessly attacked from the other side. Why did I even think of leaving with the Emperor's party? I should have known better than to follow someone that was being pursued.

After opening up the passage through my prison cell, the Emperor and his bodyguards- the Blades- had walked into what they called the Imperial Substructure. The passage that we walked out of opened into a large hall made of eroded white stone. The moment we stepped into that hall, robed assailants jumped out of the shadows and killed the woman called Captain Renault. A captain of the Blades was killed as if she were some fishmonger's wife that strolled into a bandit camp. The other two blades killed the first wave of attackers and we had some reprieve. Even the aged Emperor killed two of the attackers by himself. They then left me behind and went ahead, locking the gate behind them. I shivered in the hall, surrounded by the corpses of the attackers and the Blades' captain.

I didn't get much time to collect myself before I was attacked by rats the size of dogs. They bit me and scratched me until I managed to stab them with a dagger from the dead captain's corpse. The Blade called Baurus had taken her sword so I was left with nothing but that dagger. The robed people that had attacked the Emperor carried no weapons I could take. I found that strange because I saw the captain get stabbed with my own eyes. I tried to go back to the prison cell but the Blades had locked the door into that passageway as well. I was caught between two locked doors and with no other means to protect myself other than that one dagger. I looked around the room, there was some kind of opening, high up on the left side wall but at that height, there was no way I could reach it. I looked at the hole the rats had come out of and it seemed to lead into a larger room and not some sort of burrow. I decided to take my chances, hoping to find a way out or back. Clutching the captain's dagger, I crawled through the hole in the wall.

When I got back to my feet, I found myself in a smaller room. The walls were made of mud rather than the white stone in the previous hall and there were no torches on the walls. There were, however, glowing mushrooms growing out from the ground near a well in the middle of the room so I could see well enough to make out a door on the other side. However, beyond that door I found more rats and worse, a zombie. I was too late to react and the rats attacked me. The corpse was shuffling towards me but one of its legs was decomposed and it wasn't making much progress so I managed to close the door after killing the rats. I sat in a corner, covered in scratches and shivering with fright when the pounding started from the other side of the door. I ran to the door and put my weight against it so it wouldn't be broken down- which brings me to where I am at the moment.

Some time had passed before the pounding on the door ceased. I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to my corner- it seemed that I had some sort of fondness for dark corners in dingy rooms. All that action had tired me out. Even though I made it a habit to exercise every day, jumping around in a small prison cell and running and fighting for survival were two completely different things. As I sat there, I was hit by the realization that I was probably going to die in here. There was no way back into my prison cell and the only way forward was blocked by a zombie.

I stood up and decided to take another gamble. If I was going to die either way, it would be better to at least try to make it out. Didn't I resolve to live when I left my cell? I should show some more courage. Gripping the dagger tightly, I snuck up to the door and pulled it open slowly so as to not make any noise. When the door was open wide enough to let me through, I inched forward into the room, hugging the wall to my right. There was a little more light here and I could make out two pillars ahead of me and a passage sloping downwards directly in front of them. Keeping to the walls, I made steady progress towards the nearest pillar. I crouched behind its shadow and peered ahead into the narrow passage before me. The zombie was loitering there and was being harrassed by two rats. I knew nothing of fighting the undead. In fact, I knew nothing of fighting at all. I could run up and stab the zombie if I ran very fast and the rats kept up their attack but I had no way of knowing if that would do me any good. After all, my opponent was already dead. I hid behind the pillar and clutched my head, maybe if I managed to hit its heart it would stop moving? Or maybe I could dash past it and hope there weren't more ahead. Or perhaps the zombie and the rats would gang up on me and tear me to pieces. What did zombies do to people anyway? Why did we fear them so much?

A chill went up my spine as a cold hand grasped my throat and dragged me out from behind the pillar. I had waited too long and was caught. The zombie was stronger than me and I easily went down, the wind knocked out of my chest. The zombie was on top of me, crushing my throat with its cold lifeless hands. Terror gripped my heart but my hand moved without any thought. I stuck the knife into the zombie's neck and the creature rolled over, moaning. I was screaming as well, but I couldn't afford to let this chance go by. I ran from there as fast as my trembling legs would take me. I was too afraid and my senses were confused. I couldn't tell if the zombie was following me or not so I kept running. The narrow passage ended up taking me to another hall. This one had a pit in the center with two pillars rising to the ceiling which had become obscured by cobwebs and other things. There were skeletons littered all around the pit but that was it. No rats to scratch me, no zombies to choke me, and no other threat that I could imagine assailed me in this room. I sat behind one of the pillars in the pit after clearing away some of the skeletons. My body was aching from all the running and fighting. I had scratches all over my arms and legs. And although it wasn't much of a fight, I had survived an encounter with a zombie. But now I had no weapon to defend myself with and if there were more zombies ahead, I wasn't sure that I would live to see the world outside. Why couldn't those dreadful Blades have taken me along with them? I could have helped carry their torches. Even if I could not fight, even if I wasn't ready to die defending that old Emperor, abandoning someone in a place like that was inhumane! Stuck up people like that was the whole reason anybody even thinks of assassination plots, probably. Thinking such things, I drifted off into sleep in that room.

When I woke up, I was relieved that I was still in one piece. I could also not tell how long I had slept. Unlike my time in the prison cell, this sleep was not at all refreshing. My stomach was complaining because I had not eaten since before my escape, my body ached because I had moved in ways I was unaccustomed to and my head ached from all the stress. I ignored the jabs of pain in my stomach and the ache in my limbs and dragged myself to my feet. One way or another, I had to get out of this horrid place and the only way out was forward. Picking up a rather large looking bone, I swung it around for a bit. It was no real weapon but it was better than going forward with nothing. I climbed out of the pit and followed a passageway opposite the one I entered the room from. The path took me a long way forward, bending this way and that but always going only in one direction. I couldn't hear anything moving from either the front or back, and was able to make steady progress. From time to time, the path would open up into larger rooms with strange structures in the middle. I had no way of telling what it all meant but the white stone was always used to make these rooms. Even though much of it had been covered by mud, the passages also sometimes showed white stone peeking out of the mud walls. I stopped in one of the passages and tried to claw some of the mud away from a spot next to which I could see the white stone. It was thickly packed and I couldn't get much away but surprisingly, I found that the stone under the mud was a lot smoother and glossy while the exposed parts were coarse and eroded. It was all too strange to me.

As I proceeded, a foul stench gradually permeated the surroundings and the path finally opened up into a large cave. As soon as I entered the cave, I ducked right back into the narrow passageway that had led me there. Goblins! There were goblins ahead! The zombie was one thing but a goblin was a whole different level of danger. Before I had been imprisoned, I had listened to tales from wanderers about different monsters they had seen or claimed to have seen. Stories about goblins never went well for the women in them. Goblins were supposedly able to smell women and elves. They seemed to have a great hatred for any of the fairer races and even Orcs. I would have imagined that Orcs and goblins were related but I had seen an Orc adventurer come into a settlement asking about a goblin lair nearby.

The cave was large, and had a pit in approximately the center. The ground was mud and not the white stone from the other rooms. The stench from the cave was strong enough even at the mouth that I wondered if I hadn't just wandered into a death-trap. I didn't know how to tell how many goblins lived in a lair, but I imagined that if the smell was this strong, there would be a lot. I snuck up to the mouth of the cave and peered in as far as I could see and finally managed to find the inhabitants. Luckily for me, the goblins seemed to be standing in a group on the far side and I hadn't been spotted yet. I was panicking at this point and fell back further into the passageway I came from. I decided to retreat from there, there was absolutely nothing to be gained from walking into a goblin lair. I would much rather face the zombie. I knew that the way back was completely safe so I half ran, half-jogged my way to a room halfway between the cave and the room where I had slept earlier.

It didn't take me long to reach my destination but I was parched, and tired. I had been stuck in here for at least a day with no food and no water. It didn't strike me for a moment when I left that the Blades would abandon me like that. I suppose they didn't really care for anything but their bloody Emperor. I screamed in anguish at my stupidity, my fate and the cruelty of the divines. Why did such a thing happen to me? What did I do to die in a place like this?

"I WISH THE EMPEROR WOULD JUST DIE ALREADY!"

My scream rang through the halls. I realized my folly the moment I heard my voice echo and clapped my hands over my mouth. Too late, it would probably have carried all the way to the goblins. Ignoring my aching body and my parched mouth, I ran. I found the zombie lying where I had left it, unmoving. Without even bothering to retrieve the knife I had stuck into the creature, I pushed on- carried forward by fear. I reached the passage where the captain had died and found the doors open. Without a second thought, I dashed through it and into the labyrinth ahead. I ran, and I ran, and I would have kept on running if my legs hadn't given way. Crashing into the cold stone floor, I half-slid, half-rolled forward and came to a stop when I hit a wall. My knees were bleeding, my calves were cramping up and my chest was on fire. I lay where I landed and decided to give up. If the goblins were going to come and kill me, I wasn't going to fight. I was done fighting.

But the goblins didn't come. In fact, there was nothing moving in any direction. I laughed at myself, or was I crying? At this point, I didn't know. I was still alive and this cruel game would continue. I couldn't move my legs, so I clawed at the spaces between the stones in the floor and crawled into a dark shadow cast by a pillar. I was sure that I couldn't be seen if I lay there. So that's what I did.

I propped myself up against the pillar and pulled my throbbing legs up and started massaging my muscles. That, in itself, was a huge task but my legs calmed down bit by bit and I gradually felt the muscles ease up in my calves. By the time my legs and my breath had recovered, my eyesight had adjusted to the dark and I could make out the silhouettes of many dead bodies lying about. It seemed that the Blades had continued to meet resistance even after they abandoned me. "Good," I whispered to myself, "I hope you all died somewhere along the way. I'll be sure to find your corpses and take whatever valuables you have so I can have a feast when I get out of here."

Until then, I had been running about aimlessly. I decided that I needed to take a little more care and inspected the corpses lying about. I didn't find much on any of them but almost everyone carried a scroll. I couldn't read and I had no idea if the scrolls were worth anything so I picked one up and stuffed it in my shirt. I looked around to try and find my bearings. Because I was in an irrational state of mind when I came running in here, I could no longer figure out where I had come in from or which way I should go. As I looked around, I noticed that the number of corpses were fewer on one side and greater on the other. I walked to the side where the corpses were fewer and looked around. There was a door close to where I stood and I walked through it. There was a dropped torch a little further ahead but I was getting an ominous feeling just by standing in the doorway. Picking up the torch, I made my way forward step by step. There were more corpses in these halls and I could make out a trail of blood on the floor ahead of me. One of the Blades, or the Emperor himself was hurt and they were leaving behind a trail that even I could follow. As the torch lit the path in front of me, I felt like the darkness behind was closing in with each step that I took. Finally, the path opened up into a large hall with steps leading down to a landing.

There, at the foot of the stairs I found the second Blade, whose name I didn't know, surrounded by corpses of more of the people in the red robes. He was dead too but his sword was gone. Which meant that Baurus was the only Blade left and he had more swords than men. I looked around the landing. Directly opposite the stairs was a doorway. The metal door on it was open and there was a light beyond it but I couldn't hear anybody. To my right was another doorway. It was also left open but there were no lights beyond it. I snuck up to the door in front of me and peered inside. I saw the figure of Baurus crouching on the floor. There were bodies littered all around him and it seemed that he was talking to somebody. I must have made some noise because he suddenly looked up and noticed me at the door. I began to panic once again and scurried back but he was too quick.

"It's you! The prisoner from back then!" he exclaimed grabbing me by my arm, "What are you doing here? Did you have anything to do with this attack? Answer me, wretch!" That pushed me too far. It was too cruel. Tears started rolling down my cheeks and my chest racked with sobs. "You lot left me behind!" I wailed, "I was attacked by rats and a zombie and I almost ran into goblins! Now you're blaming me for all this too? I didn't ask for any of this, I didn't ask to be put in that cell! I don't even know why I was in prison!"

The Blade released my arm when he saw me crying, and I collapsed on the floor. The anguish and the fear from trying to stay alive all hitting me hard at once. Once my senses came back to me, I realized that I had fallen asleep from crying. The Blade was pacing restlessly in the adjacent room. I got up and went inside, where I saw the Emperor's corpse on the floor. Even though I had wished his death, now that I was no longer fleeing from danger at every turn, I didn't really feel anything for him. Neither sorrow nor joy. The Blade noticed me and turned to face me. The fact that he didn't draw his sword put me at ease. "The Blades have failed," he mumbled, "I have failed. The Emperor is dead." I merely looked at him, making no move that could be misinterpreted. He stopped pacing and sat down by the Emperor's corpse. Taking the cue, I sat near the entrance as well and simply chose to stare at the dead body. He had a large gash across his chest and blood has dried on those rich furs, but somehow, the old man looked serene. I decided to speak up, half in the hopes that I could convince the Blade to take me out of this place, "What will you do now?" He closed his eyes and remained quiet for a while.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this, but before he died, the Emperor entrusted me with an important task. However, I cannot leave his body here, unguarded." Baurus opened his eyes and looked at me, "I need you to go back to the prison and get a detachment of Imperial Guards to help me carry the Emperor's body outside." He tossed a key to me, "This key will open the way back into the prison cell you were held in. Go, quickly, if more of them come I might not be able to hold out." I picked up the key and nodded at him. I was feeling light-headed. Just like that, I had won my freedom. I could get out now and escape this nightmare. I turned and half-ran all the way back to the prison.

When I emerged from the hidden passage and walked out, through the main door, the entire world looked so bright and promising that tears welled in my eyes.


End file.
